Tradewell Fellowship Offers Great Opportunity

The Tradewell Fellowship was created to help build careers of aspiring healthcare architects. Each year, a Tradewell Fellow has the opportunity to work with WHR planners, architects and clients to create healing environments using collaborative design methods. The Fellowship, which begins and ends in July, includes employment at WHR Architects in Houston.

"This fellowship offers a very unique opportunity for someone interested in healthcare facility planning and design. Fellows gain broad experience during their year at WHR and many have stayed with the firm. All have achieved great things. They represent the future of healthcare architecture," notes Charles Cadenhead, AIA, FACHA-senior principal and Tradewell Fellow Mentor.

In addition to working directly with senior medical planners on design projects, Fellows receive career guidance from leaders at WHR and a network of past Tradewell Fellows. Fellowship participants develop the skills and experience that help them to become leaders and mentors.

The Tradewell Fellowship is for those interested in being lifelong learners and teachers. In order to develop expertise in an area of his or her interest, the Fellow will choose a topic related to the design of healing spaces and create a body of writing that is suitable for publication. The Fellow will also receive a scholarship to attend a healthcare architecture conference, and have the opportunity to attend many in-house educational presentations. Other educational opportunities for the Fellow include: assisting with teaching a graduate-level course on health facility planning, design, and construction; participating in evidence-based design activities; and assisting members of the firm in authoring speeches, articles or books.

"I was honored to be the Tradewell Fellow in the year 2000. As a fellow, I embarked on a journey of accelerated learning and professional growth. The fellowship poised me on a platform adjacent to the leaders of the firm who mentored me through the course of the year. Six years later, still at WHR, I am a senior designer/medical planner and was recently elevated to principal. The Tradewell Fellowship was instrumental in shaping my career and I would strongly encourage graduates who are passionate about healthcare architecture to apply for this unique opportunity," says Tushar Gupta, principal.

WHR Architects is an architecture and interior firm focused on designing healthcare, research and academic facilities. With nearly 140 people located in Houston and Dallas, the 27-year-old firm is working on projects around the country for top-tier public and private institutions for which the firm's commitment to critical thinking, balanced by an ingrained empathy, delivers improved project outcomes and positive working experiences. WHR was ranked number one on the Houston Business Journal's 2006, Top 100 Largest Houston-area architectural firms (based on local gross billings), was recognized as a 2007 member of PSMJ's Circle of Excellence and was just announced as one of the Best Companies to Work for in Texas, 2007.